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Vermicelli Soup

A hearty broth of veal or mutton, ham hock, onions, celery, sweet herbs, and vermicelli, served over bread slices.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 11 ingredients
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Vermicelli Soup

Why it works: Butter and bread match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 3% of all ingredient pairs, and 27,145 recipes mention both. Both carry delta-decalactone, which smells sweet, creamy. The science ↓

Vermicelli Soup

Ingredients

Directions

Make the broth

  1. In a soup pot, combine the broken bones, ham hock, onions, sweet herbs, celery, and butter.

  2. Cook over low heat for 1 hour.

  3. Skim the surface, then add 1 gallon of boiling water.

  4. Keep boiling until the meat separates from the bones, then strain the broth.

Finish and serve

  1. Return the broth to the pot and add the scalded vermicelli.

  2. Season with salt and cayenne pepper, and boil for 15 minutes.

  3. Place slices of bread in the bottom of bowls and pour the soup over them.

Recipe from a historical cookbook (Internet Archive).

Transcribed from a scanned cookbook and modernised for today's kitchens. Where the book gave no heat or time, or said "a moderate oven", the temperatures and times here may be modern equivalents rather than the book's own figures.

Photo for illustrative purposes only · Contact us to use it

Explore the science

The flavor team

The pairs that carry this dish. Each one is judged two ways: how much aroma chemistry they share, and how many recipes mention both.

  1. Butter + breadtop 3% of all pairs
    Aroma overlapstrong
    Mentioned together27,145 recipes

    Shared aroma: delta-decalactone (sweet, creamy).

  2. Celery + peppertop 3% of all pairs
    Aroma overlapstrong
    Mentioned together16,001 recipes

    Shared aroma: 4'-methylacetophenone (bitter almond).

  3. Ham + breadtop 3% of all pairs
    Aroma overlapstrong
    Mentioned together2,536 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-acetyl-1-pyrroline (popcorn, roasted).

  4. Onion + celerytop 5% of all pairs
    Aroma overlapmoderate
    Mentioned together18,506 recipes

    Shared aroma: guaiacol (smoky, sweet).

  5. Veal + hamtop 6% of all pairs
    Aroma overlapmoderate
    Mentioned together3,264 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2,4-decadienal (seaweed).

Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs

What each ingredient does

Veal knuckle or mutton neck
Releases flavour and gelatin into the broth as it simmers and breaks down.
Vermicelli
Thin pasta that softens in the broth and gives the soup its body.
Butter
Adds richness and carries flavour from the aromatics into the broth.
Onions
Build savoury, sweet depth as they soften and release flavour into the broth.
Bread slices
Soak up the hot broth in the bowl, adding substance and texture.

The step that matters

Keep boiling until the meat separates from the bones, then strain the broth. Boiling long enough lets collagen and marrow flavour leave the bones, giving a richer broth. Stopping early leaves a thin, weak stock.

Flavor stand-ins for the celery

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (veal, ham, onion, butter, pepper, bread):

  1. Parsleyabout as good a flavor fit
  2. Celerythe original
  3. Thymeabout as good a flavor fit
  4. Garlicabout as good a flavor fit

Fit is the average pairing score against veal, ham, onion, butter, pepper, bread. Candidates are from the same food group and used in at least 100 recipes. This compares flavor only: it does not check the job the ingredient does in the dish (bulk, moisture, acidity, structure).

“What each ingredient does” and “The step that matters” were written by Claude from this recipe’s own method and reviewed in samples by CompKitchen.

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